CASPAR  WISTAR   HODGE 


A    MEMORIAL    ADDRESS 


FRANCIS    L.    PATTON 


■■LL_ 

r? 

BX  9225 
Patton, 

1932. 
Caspar 

.H59  P37  1891 
Francis  L.  1843- 

Wistar  Hodge 

MEMORIAL   ADDRESS 


CASPAR  WISTAR   HODGE 


A    MEMORIAL   ADDRESS 


FRANCIS    L.   PATTON 


NEW    YORK 
ANSON    D.  F.  RANDOLPH   AND   CO. 


^Enibcrsitg  Press: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


This  Address^  in  Memory  of 
CASPAR    WISTAR     HODGE,    D.D.,    LL.D., 

PROFESSOR   OF   EXEGETICAL    THEOLOGY    AND 

NEW   TESTAMENT   LITERATURE, 

Was  prepared  at  the  request  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Theological 

Seminary,  and  delivered  in  the  First  Presbyterian 

Churchy  Princeton,  on  Sunday  tnorning, 

November  fifteenth ,   1 89 1 . 


He  opened  to  us  the  Scriptures. 

Luke  xxiv.  32. 


CASPAR  WISTAR   HODGE. 

HE  was  my  most  intimate  friend.     I  have  "He  / 

opened  ' 

come  to-dav  to  place  a  wreath  of  affection  'o  us  the 

■'  ^  hcnp- 

upon  his  grave.  My  text  is  taken  from  the  luke  ~ 
floral  tribute  which  you  who  were  his  pupils  ^^'^-  ^^■ 
placed  upon  his  bier.  This  is  your  answer  to 
the  question,  What  did  he  do }  It  is  a  suffi- 
cient answer.  He  wrote  no  books,  his  voice  was 
seldom  heard  beyond  his  native  town,  he  took 
no  active  part  in  public  affairs,  and  he  shrank 
from  the  public  gaze ;    but    he    opened   to    us 

the  Scriptures.    To  more  than  thirty  classes  he  -i 

unfolded  the  truths  of  the  New  Testament.  He 
led  them  reverently  over  the  ground  that  had 
been  hallowed  by  the  Saviour's  feet,  and  traced 
the  history  of  the  Apostolic  Church  from  Peter 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost  to  John  in  Patmos. 
Year  by  year  he  sent  his  pupils  forth  into  the 
world  laden  with  material  for  use  in  the  service 
of  the  gospel,  filled  with  quickening  thoughts, 
and    ready  to  testify   that    the   reverent  spirit 


7 


8 

can  handle    the    subtle   questions  of   criticism 
without  suggesting  doubt  or  lessening  zeal. 
The  desire      There  are  many  reasons  that  may  be  2:iven 

to  know  J  J  Q 

ofThi'iif?  ^^^  ^^^  desire  to  know  something  of  the  life  of 
nent"man.  ^^  eminent  man.  Sometimes  a  man  is  so  rep- 
resentative of  the  age  in  which  he  lives,  that  to 
write  his  life  is  really  to  write  the  history  of  a 
period.  Such  a  life  was  that  of  Dr.  Charles 
Hodge.  He  was  identified  with  all  the  contro- 
versies and  discussions  of  his  church  through 
more  than  half  a  century.  But  this  is  not  true 
of  him  whose  memory  we  honor  to-day.  He 
was  an  interested  observer  of  events,  but  he 
did  not  come  into  close  contact  with  them,  and 
only  in  an  indirect  way  helped  to  shape  them. 
Sometimes  a  man  is  so  widely  known  through 
his  works,  that  a  pardonable  curiosity  prompts 
us  to  seek  a  personal  acquaintance  with  him. 
We  love  to  hear  the  author  read  his  own  poems  ; 
and  when  the  great  man  dies  whom  we  have 
known  only  in  his  books,  we  watch  carefully  for 
his  biography,  and  whet  our  appetites  for  some 
delicious  morsel  of  table-talk  or  private  conver- 
sation. But  there  is  no  eager  public  waiting 
for  information  here.  We  are  not  expected  to 
throw  open   the   privacy  of   domestic   life,  to 


gratify  a  curiosity  that  seeks  this  form  of  com- 
mentary upon  the  text  of  a  magnum  opus.  Dr. 
Hodge  did  not  live  in  the  view  of  the  world,  i?^  did  not 

,  live  in  the 

His  life  was  singularly  uneventful ;  and  there  ^'^^  ^^ 

the  world. 

is  something  almost  pathetic  in  its  quiet,  even 
flow.  I  am  simply  following  the  natural  im- 
pulses of  my  heart  in  what  I  say  this  morning. 
We  know  that  we  have  had  a  a^reat  man  amono- 
us,  —  a  man  whose  greatness  is  all  the  more 
our  pride,  because  he  was  our  own,  and  we  did 
not  share  him  with  the  world.  Our  thoughts 
turn  to-day,  not  chiefly  on  what  he  did,  but  on 
what  he  was.  It  is  the  life  I  would  describe. 
It  is  the  man  I  would  portray.  It  is  the  great 
personality  that  but  lately  moved  among  us 
and  impressed  itself  upon  us  that  I  would  call 
attention  to;  for  after  all,  and  back  of  every- 
thing he  said,  and  in  spite  of  reticence  and 
reserve,  there  was  about  him  a  commanding 
majesty  of  manhood  that  was  palpable  to  all. 

I  hardly  think  that  we  can  understand  Dr. 
Hodge  unless  we  give  attention  to  some  of  the 
circumstances  that  shaped  his  life.  He  would 
probably  have  been  the  same  strong,  silent, 
candid  man  he  was,  no  matter  what  his  profes- 
sion had  been.     But  some  of  the  features  of  his 


lO 

nature  would  not  have  been  so  marked  perhaps, 

if  the  peculiarities  of  his  position  had  not  em- 

in  any      phasized  them.     Had  he  turned  his  attention 

other  de- 
partment   to  physical  science,  as  when  he  was  private  sec- 

of  learn- 
ing he       retary  to  Professor  Henry  it  seemed  not    un- 

dfsthir-""  lil^ely  that  he  would,  there  is  no  doubt  that  he 
tion.  would  have  won  the  same  distinction  in  the 
study  of  nature  that  he  afterwards  attained  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible.  Or  if,  following  his 
early  inclinations  and  the  decided  bent  of  his 
genius,  he  had  entered  the  medical  profession, 
as  I  believe  his  distinguished  uncle  at  one  time 
wished  him  to  do,  he  would  have  won  eminence 
in  that  field.  And,  perhaps,  if  he  had  entered 
into  a  calling  that  in  his  early  years  would  have 
made  large  drafts  upon  his  energy  and  self-reli- 
ance, he  would  have  overcome  that  reluctance 
to  self-expression,  which  seemed  so  fitting  at 
the  beginning  of  his  professorial  career  to  the 
younger  son  of  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  but  which 
,  after  settling  into  fixed  habit  he  apparently 
had  neither  the  inclination  nor  the  ability  to 
overcom.e,  when  by  long  years  of  labor  he  had 
won  his  right  to  be  a  leader  of  opinion,  and  the 
death  of  older  men  had  placed  him  in  a  posi- 
tion of  enhanced  responsibility. 


II 

Dr.  Hodge,  I  say,  must  be  considered  in  the 
light  of  his  environment.     This  seminary,  now  He  must 

,  .     ,  111  1  ^^  consid- 

more  than  eighty  years  old,  has  always  stood  ered  in  the 

,  .  .  .        light  of 

for  sound  doctrme.  All  its  professors  have  main-  his  envi- 
ronment. 
tained  the  theology  of  the  Westminster  stand- 
ards, and  have  been  reverent  students  of  the 
word  of  God.  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  to 
whom  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  accords  the  high 
praise  of  being  "  incomparably  the  greatest  of 
this  illustrious  family,"  was  the  first  Professor 
of  Theology.  He  was  a  man  of  keen,  incisive 
mind,  a  profound  thinker,  a  discerner  of  char- 
acter, a  seer,  and  a  saint.  With  him  was 
associated  the  courteous,  scholarly,  and  godly 
Dr.  Miller.  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  brought 
into  the  relations  he  afterwards  sustained  to 
this  seminary  through  the  fatherly  interest 
taken  in  him  by  Dr.  Alexander.  At  his  sug- 
gestion he  was  made  a  Professor  of  Hebrew 
soon  after  his  graduation.  After  that,  as  we 
all  know,  he  was  appointed  to  the  chair  of 
Exegetical  Theology,  and  not  long  before 
Dr.  Alexander's  death  was  his  colleague  and 
afterwards  his  successor  in  the  chair  of  Sys- 
tematic  Theology. 


12 

Born  1830.  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar  Hodge  was  born  in 
Princeton,  Feb.  21,  1830.  He  grew  up  in 
Princeton ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  short 
period  covered  by  his  two  pastorates,  he  spent 
his  life  here.  We  can  see,  then,  why  he  loved 
Princeton.  Others  love  it;  even  those  who 
have  spent  only  three  or  four  years  of  aca- 
demic residence  here  speak  of  it  in  enthusiastic 
terms.  We  who  have  come  here  to  live,  and 
who  expect  to  die  here,  love  it  with  an  affec- 
tion that  grows  deeper  even  if  it  grows  sadder 
every  year.  But  we  are  only  adopted  children 
after  all.     We  love  sometimes  with  a  divided 

He  loved  heart.     It  was  not  so   with    Dr.    Hodge.     He 

Princeton 

as  one      lovcd  it  as  onc  loves  the  home  of  his  childhood. 

loves  the 

home  of     ]-[q  Jovcd  it  with  an  unfaltering:  and  an  unwan- 

his  child-  ^ 

hood.  dering  affection.  Its  rough  streets  and  crooked 
lanes  and  weather-beaten  houses  had  tender 
associations  for  him.  The  bridge  we  crossed 
and  the  brook  we  would  sometimes  pensively 
look  into  in  our  summer  rambles  would  often 
suggest  an  anecdote  that  showed  how  the 
neighborhood  was  haunted  by  the  ghosts  of 
memory. 

Besides,  the  theology  of    this  seminary  was 
to  him  a  precious  heritage.     He  was  in  intel- 


13 

lectual  sympathy  with  it  to  be  sure ;  but  his 
hereditary  relations  to  Princeton  theology  gave 
an  emotional  warmth  to  his  convictions.  He 
believed  that  Princeton  had  performed  a  mis- 
sion in  the  past,  and  he  believed  that  in  the 
maintenance  of  the  same  truth  she  had  a  mis- 
sion just  as  great  to  perform  to-day. 

Dr.  Hodge  was  a  quiet,  reticent,  studious 
boy.  He  was  fortunate  in  his  natural  endow- 
ments, and  more  than  fortunate  in  his  pre- 
ceptor. We  have,  doubtless,  improved  our 
educational  methods  in  recent  years ;  we  have 
better  text-books  and  great  preparatory  schools. 
Dr.  Hodge  did  not  go  to  school.  He  was  the 
companion,  pupil,  and  friend  of  one  of  the  great- 
est scholars  and  most  superlatively  gifted  minds 
this  country  ever  produced.  He  learned  his 
English  grammar  through  his  Greek.  He  be- 
came a  purist  in  English  style  by  companion-  influence 
ship  with    Dr.   Addison    Alexander.     He  had  ^1^^°"   ^^- 

^  exander 

glimpses  of  the  possibilities  of  the  human  mind  ""rf^^ufe 
in  what  he  saw  in  this  remarkable  man,  that  left 
an  ineffaceable  impress  upon  his  life.  Do  you 
ask  me  if  he  had  early  advantages  ?  Ask  the 
man  who  grew  up  at  Chamouni  if  he  has  seen 
Mt.  Blanc.     Wistar  Hodge  spent  his  boyhood 


He  spent  jn  the  shadow  of    this  ^reat  man.     The  rela- 

his  boy- 

hood  in     tions  between  the  two  were  intimate,  and  are 

the  shad- 
ow of  this  worth  referring  to,  because  they  show  a  side  of 

great  man.  '^  -' 

Dr.  Addison  Alexander's  nature  that  is  perhaps 
not  generally  known.  This  intimacy  began  a 
little  before  Dr.  Wistar  was  twelve  years  old. 
It  was  not  only  one  of  companionship  but  of 
correspondence.  It  is  interesting  to  see  the 
painstaking  effort  in  chirography,  in  oddities 
of  rhyme,  in  extravagances  of  speech,  in  high- 
sounding  and  unmeaning  nonsense,  to  furnish 
amusement  to  this  boy  whose  education  he  has 
asked  the  privilege  of  conducting.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander wrote  a  series  of  these  communications 
in  little  manuscript  volumes,  called  the  "  Wistar 
Magazines,"  which  are  now  among  the  most 
cherished  possessions  of  Dr.  Hodge's  family. 
Dr.  Alexander  was  a  many-sided  man.  He 
was  a  linguist,  a  critic,  a  theologian,  a  preacher, 
and  a  poet.  But  the  wit  and  drollery  of  these 
"Wistar  Masfazines  "  remind  me  of  Lewis  Car- 
roll ;  and  make  me  feel  that  the  man  who  wrote 
the  well-known  hymti,  and  published  the  com- 
mentary on  Isaiah,  and  lectured  on  the  Canon 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  preached  the  ser- 
mon on   Lot's  wife,  could  also    have   written 


15 

"  Alice  in  Wonderland "  if  he  had  chosen. 
The  influence  of  Dr.  Alexander  on  Dr.  Hodge 
was  visible  in  all  his  after  life.  To  him  he 
was  indebted  for  those  scholarly  ideals  that 
made  him  so  painstaking  in  his  work  and,  I 
may  add,  so  dissatisfied  with  it.  Dr.  Alexander 
fitted  him  for  college ;  and  it  is  not  strange 
therefore  that  he  was  well  prepared  when  he 
entered,  and  that  he  w^as  graduated  (1848)  at 
the  head   of  his  class. 

Dr.  W.  C.  Cattell  was  Dr.  Hodge's  most  in-  His  coi- 

.  .  'sge  life. 

tmiate  friend  durmg  his  college  course.  The 
two  were  classmates ;  and  when  in  after  years 
they  were  associated,  the  one  as  a  professor, 
the  other  as  a  director  in  Princeton  Seminary, 
Dr.  Hodge's  house  was  always  his  classmate's 
home  when  he  visited  Princeton.  In  a  pri- 
vate letter  to  me.  Dr.  Cattell  says,  "  He  was 
then,  as  in  all  his  after  life,  quiet  and  reserved, 
making  but  few  acquaintances  even  among  the 
members  of  his  own  class.  But  we  soon  be- 
came very  intimate.  My  room  in  the  college 
was  like  his  own.  We  studied  our  lessons  to- 
gether, and,  of  course,  I  soon  learned  to  ap- 
preciate his  superior  scholarship.  He  helped 
me  out  of  all  the  hard  places.     Of  course  he 


i6 

easily  led  his  class  and  graduated  with  the  first 
honor.  There  were  able  men  in  the  class,  but 
Wistar's  scholarship  was  so  high  that  there 
could  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  a  good 
second  to  him.  And  then  he  was  universally 
recognized  as  a  man  of  elevated  principles.  I 
do  not  think  a  purer-hearted  boy  or  man  ever 
lived." 

Dr.  Hodge  acted  for  one  year  as  a  tutor  in 
the  college  while  carrying  on  his  studies  in  the 
theological  seminary,  and  taught  another  year 
also  at  the  Edgehill  School.  He  remained  four 
years  in  the  seminary,  and  at  the  close  of  his 
period  of  study  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery 
of  New  Brunswick  in  1853.  On  November  5, 
1854,  he  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  by  the 
His  pas-  Presbytery  of  New  York.  His  first  pastoral 
Williams-  charge    was    the    Ainslie-Street    Presbyterian 

burg     and  ^ 

Oxford      Church,  Williamsburg  ( Brooklyn,  E.  D. ),  which 

1853-56.  o  \  ./ 

he  served  one  year  as  a  stated  supply,  and  then 
two  years  as  a  settled  pastor.  In  1856  he  was 
called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Oxford,  Pa.,  remaining  there  until 
i860,  when  he  was  called  to  his  chair  in  the 
seminary.  This  seminary  had  then  suffered  a 
loss  in  the  death   of  Dr.   Addison  Alexander 


17 

akin  to  that  which  it  has  just  sustained  in  the 
death  of  Dr.  Hodge.  Dr.  Alexander  was  cut 
off  in  the  prime  of  hfe,  and  in  the  very  height 
of  his  fame  as  preacher,  professor,  and  author. 
To  many  I  dare  say  it  seemed  a  very  hazardous 
experiment  when  it  was  proposed  to  bring  the 
young  pastor  from  his  rural  parish  and  place 
him  in  the  chair  that  had  been  vacated  by  Dr. 
Addison  Alexander.  Students  who  had  been 
the  pupils  of  Dr.  Alexander  may  have  felt  that 
the  sceptre  of  New  Testament  criticism  had 
fallen  into  feeble  hands.  Men  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  the  brilliant,  versatile  master  may  have 
felt  that    the    pupil    was   separated    from  him 

Chosen 

longo  intervallo.     But  the   new  professor  only  ^^  ^"^^ 

•'   successor 

needed  time,  as   the  sequel   proved.     It  was  a"?^""-^^' 

^  ^  dison  Al- 

happy  day  that  fixed  the  choice  of  the  direc-  186^''^'^' 
tors  upon  Wistar  Hodge  as  the  fittest  man  to 
succeed  Addison  Alexander.  Students  are  not 
the  best  judges,  nor  the  most  lenient  critics  of 
a  professor  during  those  trying  years  when  he 
is  organizing  his  material.  They  do  not  as  a 
rule  understand  the  difficulties  that  beset  a  man 
in  a  new  field,  and  they  are  apt  to  judge  him 
by  the  standards  set  by  maturer  scholars.  Dr. 
Hodge,  however,  was  fortunate  in  having  young 


i8 

men  about  him  who  knew  how  to  be  forbearing 
Testimony  and  Sympathetic.  Dr.  William  Irvin  of  New 
his  first     York  was  one  of  Dr.  Hodge's  first  pupils,  and 

pupils. 

I  know  that  he  always  had  a  warm  place  in  Dr. 
Hodge's  heart.  In  a  kind  letter  he  says  to  me : 
"  I  was  a  member  of  Dr.  Hodge's  first  senior 
class  in  the  seminary.  We  graduated  sixty- 
one  men,  the  largest  I  believe  on  record.  I 
think  we  all  appreciated  Dr.  Hodge's  position. 
We  had  all  been  students  of  Dr.  Addison  Alex- 
ander ;  we  felt  the  burden  that  was  on  Dr. 
Hodge  as  his  successor,  and  accorded  him  a 
deferential  sympathy.  I  never  heard  a  remark 
made  that  I  can  recollect  that  expressed  the 
contrary.  His  course  with  us  that  year  was  in- 
evitably an  imperfect  one.  He  took  Dr.  Alex- 
ander's Mark  for  one  subject,  and  went  through 
part  of  it  with  us  exegetically.  He  has  since 
repeatedly  said  to  me  with  emphasis,  '  Your 
class  treated  me  very  kindly.'  .  .  .  Then,  as  you 
know,  he  began  to  put  his  very  life  into  the 
construction  of  that  course  of  lectures  which 
afterwards  made  so  strong  and  brilliant  an  im- 
pression. I  don't  believe  that  any  professor, 
especially  with  his  retiring,  reserved,  and  unde- 
monstrative temper,  ever   made  so  strong  an 


19 

impression  upon  his  students.  .  .  .  His  char- 
acter always  had  a  very  strong  attraction  for 
me,  although,  as  you  know,  he  never  seemed  to 
try  to  attract  any  one." 

I  entered  the  seminary  in  1863,  ^•^^d  joined  ^n  early 

apprecia- 

the    middle  class.     Dr.    Hod^e   was  then  lee- 1'^"  of  his 

"-^  fine  quali- 

turinsf  on  the  life  of  Christ.     He  had  by  that  H''^''^  ^ 

^  ■'  Professor. 

time  elaborately  organized  his  material  in  writ- 
ten lectures,  and  his  fine  qualities  as  a  pro- 
fessor were  appreciated  by  the  men  of  my  day, 
although  of  course  he  had  not  then  reached 
the  eminence  that  he  subsequently  attained, 
and  his  department  had  not  been  accorded 
that  unique  position  in  the  seminary  which, 
by  general  consent  and  with  an  increasing 
momentum  of  sentiment  as  successive  classes 
went  out  from  his  instruction,  was  afterwards 
accorded  it  by  the  students.  It  is  one  of  the 
regrets  of  my  own  life  that  I  did  not  devote 
as  much  energy  as  I  ought  to  have  done  to 
the  work  of  this  department  when  I  was  a 
student  here.  I  listened  and  was  stimulated, 
and  my  reading  was  directed  in  no  small  de- 
gree by  what  I  heard  in  Dr.  Hodge's  class- 
room.    But  I  was  reading  hard  in  other  lines ; 


20 

and  my  interest  in  Dr.   Hodge's  subject  was 
awakened  at  a  later   day,  and   when   I  could 
not  have  the  benefit  of  his  help.     In  1876  the 
ment°o?a  increasing  feebleness   of  Dr.    Charles    Hodge 
for  D^r^"^   made  it  necessary  for  the  directors  to  seek  a 
Hodge'     colleague   for   him.      Dr.    A.    A.    Hodge    was 
then   the  most  conspicuous  theologian  in  our 
church,  who  was  at  the  same  time  in  full  ac- 
cord with  the  Princeton  type  of  theology.     He 
was  accordingly  called  from  Allegheny  Semi- 
nary to  be  his  father's  colleague  and  successor. 
There   had    been  at   one  time    three    Alex- 
anders in  the  seminary, —  father  and  two  sons; 
The  three  there  wcrc  now  three  Hodges.     Of  this  second 

Hodges  at 

Princeton,  ^rio  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  was  the  greatest.  I 
knew  the  sons  too  well  to  suppose  that  I  could 
ever  be  doing  what  would  be  pleasing  to  them 
were  I  to  make  either  equal  to  their  father.  I 
know  how  impatient  Dr.  Wistar  was  when  in 
the  shock  of  sudden  loss  and  under  the  im- 
pulse of  generous  admiration  some  of  Dr. 
Archie's  friends  would  co-ordinate  him  with  his 
father.  And  yet  I,  looking  on  as  an  impartial 
judge,  can  see,  or  think  I  see,  how  each  of  the 
sons  was  pre-eminent  in  his  own  sphere ;  and 
that  without  being  equal  to  Dr.  Charles  Hodge 


21 

in  the  totality  of  his  career  was  superior  to  him 
in  some  very  noticeable  respects.  For  in  esti- 
mating a  man  we  must  consider  not  simply 
his  potentialities,  but  what  he  actually  accom- 
plishes. It  is  not  what  he  could  do  if  he 
would,  or  would  have  done  had  he  lived,  that  is 
to  be  the  basis  of  our  judgment.  Dr.  Charles  Dr. 
Hodge  had  come  by  long  life,  industrious  Hodge. 
habits,  and  uninterrupted  study  to  have  a  com- 
mand of  the  whole  theological  field  which  his 
sons  never  acquired.  He  was  an  exegete,  a 
student  of  philosophy,  and  a  man  of  large 
general  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  opin- 
ion; and  he  had  organized  his  knowledge  of 
all  departments  in  his  Systematic  Theology. 
He  had  published  books  and  engaged  in  the- 
ological controversies.  He  had  been  a  leader 
of  thought  in  matters  of  ecclesiastical  admin- 
istration, and  had  also  fought  his  way  in  hot 
debate  to  the  positions  which  he  occupied  in 
respect  to  the  doctrines  of  sin  and  grace.     Dr.  Dr.  a.  a. 

Hodge. 

A.  A.  Hodge  was  a  man  of  genius.  He  had 
greater  power  of  expression  than  his  father, 
and  I  believe  a  more  subtle  and  metaphysical 
intellect.  He  was  a  more  popular  preacher, 
and  I  should  say  that  he  was  a  better  teacher 


22 

of  theology  than  his  father  ever  was.  But  he 
did  not  have  his  father's  erudition,  nor  his 
brother's  nice  and  accurate  scholarship.  He 
was  rapid  in  the  movements  of  his  mind ;  and 
when  he  once  saw  his  way  to  a  full  acceptance 
of  a  theological  position,  it  was  more  natural,  to 
him  to  adopt  the  a  priori  method  of  deduction 
in  regard  to  subordinate  ideas  than  to  follow  the 
slow  and  painstaking  plan  of  inductive  inquiry. 
No  differ-  There  was  no  difference  in  the  theolosfv  taus^ht 

ence  in  *-'•'  ^ 

their  the-    ]-)y   thcsc  thrcc  men;    but  they  reached  their 
though      results  by  somewhat  different    methods.     Dr. 

adopting  J 

mft^ods    Charles   Hodge  had  become  a  dogmatician  by 
of  inquiry,  j^^j^^g  f^j.g|-  ^j-^  excgctc ;  and  the  inductive  exe- 

getical  method  was  always  visible,  in  spite  of 
the  large  deductive  element  which  is  insepara- 
ble from  the  work  of  synthesis  in  Systematic 
Theology.  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  was  not  an  ex- 
egete,  and  had  no  taste  for  nice  exegetical 
work.  His  theology  is  scriptural  throughout  of 
course;  but  his  theological  distinctions,  which 
are  numerous  and  made  with  nice  discrimina- 
tion,, are  usually  inferences  deductively  reached 
and  subsequently  fortified  by  Scripture.  Dr. 
Wistar  Hodge,  on  the  other  hand,  worked  ana- 
lytically.    He   had  a  system   of  theology ;  but 


23 

system  was  not  the  end  that  he  was  seeking. 
He  made  it  his  business  to  know  the  New  Tes- 
tament. He  found  his  theology  there,  —  the 
theology  that  his  father  and  his  brother  were 
teaching;  but  every  doctrine  and  every  phase 
of  doctrine  so  far  as  he  maintained  it  had 
been  wrested  as  a  generalization  from  the  New 
Testament    by     a     separate     induction.       Dr.  d*"- wis- 

■'  *■  tar  worked 

Wistar  Hodge  worked  in  a  more  specialized  s"e(,|^r^ 
way  than  either  his  father  or  his  brother.  p][g 'zed  way. 
was  not  so  much  concerned  as  they  were  with 
the  history  of  doctrine,  or  with  the  relations 
that  theology  sustained  to  other  departments 
of  knowledge.  But  he  was  the  most  accurate 
scholar  of  the  three ;  and,  as  compared  with 
his  father,  I  should  say  that  he  was  less  given 
to  dogmatic  and  more  disposed  to  grammati- 
cal and  historical  exegesis.  As  a  student  and 
teacher  of  the  New  Testament,  when  you  con- 
sider the  amount  of  work  he  did  and  the  thor- 
oughness with  which  he  did  it,  I  should  not 
only  say  that  he  excelled  his  father,  but  that 
at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  one  of  the  fore- 
most men  in  the  English-speaking  world.  These 
three  men  supplemented  each  other,  and  to- 
gether formed   a  wonderful  triumvirate.      But 


24 

of  course  it  was  only  for  a  short  time  that  they 
The  death  actually  stood  together  in  the  seminary.     Dr. 

of  Dr. 

Charles     Charlcs   Hodsfe  died  in   1878.     It  was  one  of 

Hodge,  '^       _       ^ 

jS;^-  the  blessings  of  his  richly-dowered  life,  as  well  as 
one  of  the  blessings  of  the  institution  so  richly 
favored  in  a  succession  of  able  and  godly  men, 
that  when  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  rested  from  his 
labors  his  work  could  pass  without  interrup- 
tion, and  by  a  natural  transition,  into  the  hands 
of  his  two  gifted  sons,  Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge  having 
undivided  responsibility  in  regard  to  the  de- 
partment of  Systematic  Theology,  and  Dr. 
Wistar  Hodge  adding  New  Testament  Exege- 
sis to  the  work  he  had  been  doing  hereto- 
fore   in    the   department    of    New    Testament 

Literature.    ] 
***** 

I  came  to  Princeton  Seminary  as  a  professor 
in  1 88 1,  just  after  I  had  passed  through  a  sore 
bereavement.  I  was  received  with  open  arms 
by  all  the  members  of  the  faculty,  but  I  was 
treated  with  special  affection  by  these  two 
brothers.  I  shall  "never  forget  the  night  that 
they  and  their  families  stood  beside  me  while 
we  laid  our  little  daughter  down  to  rest  beneath 
the  blossoms  that  these  kind  friends  had  placed 


25 

upon  the  grave.  From  that  time  I  was  their 
friend ;  and  as  time  went  on  and  we  became 
more  intimate,  I  was  more  than  their  friend.  I 
loved  them  ;  and  they  loved  me.  I  saw  them 
constantly.  Usually  I  was  in  the  house  of  one 
or  the  other  every  day.  They  talked  to  and 
about  each  other  as  only  brothers  do,  and  they 
both  treated  me  as  though  I  were  a  brother.  I 
know  how  they  estimated  each  other.  What 
we  admired  in  Dr.  Archie,  —  his  exuberance  of 
speech,  his  affluence  of  illustration,  and  those 
wave-like  sentences,  with  now  and  then  one 
longer  than  the  rest,  that  would  roll  high,  break 
in  feeling,  and  descend  upon  you  like  the  in- 
rushing  of  the  tide,  —  he  did  not  like.  He  would 
have  had  him  more  sedate  and  painstaking  in 
his  preparations.  But  he  looked  up  to  him, 
trusted  him,  and  I  think  never  got  over  the 
sense  of  loss  that  he  sustained  in  his  death. 
Dr.  Archie  admired  Dr.  Wistar's  scholarship,  Dr.  a.  a. 

Hodge 

and  I  must  say  that  of  the  two  he  was  the  more  f"^  "''•,^- 

•'  W.  Hodge 

generous  in  praise.     He  had  an  unbounded  ad-  compared, 
miration  for  him ;  only  he  deplored  his  lack  of 
energy,  and  used  to  have  a  good-humored  way 
of  saying  that  Wistar  was  "  so  superior,"  mean- 
ing that  he  often  had  a  manner  that  seemed  to 


26 

be  unconcernedly  confident.  These  two  men 
were  not  alike.  Their  methods  of  teaching 
were  as  different  as  could  be  ;  yet  to  the  best 
men  in  the  class  they  were  equally  inspiring. 
One  of  Dr.  Wistar's  pupils  says,  "  He  was 
not  the  man  to  force  knowledge  upon  unwilling 
students.  He  would  not  hammer  information 
into  reluctant  minds."  I  think  it  quite  likely, 
therefore,  that  Dr.  Alexander  Hodge  succeeded 
in  making  an  impression  upon  the  larger  num- 
ber of  men ;  for  he  not  only  gave  men  the 
opportunity  to  learn,  but  made  it  his  business 
also  to  see  that  they  did. 

I  look  back  upon  the  period  of  my  compan- 
ionship with  these  men  as  the  choicest  days  in 
Aprivi-     lyiy  ijfe^    I  regard  it  as  an  unspeakable  privilege 
•^^^^  ,       to  have  shared   their  friendship,  and  to  have 

shared  ^' 

friendship,  comc  into  such  intimate  relationship  with  them. 
I  was  their  junior,  and  fell  easily  into  the  place 
that  was  becoming  to  my  years ;  but  I  found 
quite  as  much  pleasure  in  the  companionship 
of  conscious  subordination  as  I  have  since  felt 
in  the  inevitable  isolation  that  comes  witl 
greater  responsibility.  When  Dr.  Archie  died 
I  found  myself  drawn  more  closely  to  Dr.  Wis- 
tar.      We    had   much    in    common ;    and    we 


27 

walked  together  day  by  day  in  that  conscious- 
ness of  a  community  of  feehng  that  made  it  a 
matter  of  slight  importance  whether  we  spoke 
to  each  other  as  we  walked  or  not.  I  came  to 
know  him  well ;  and  yet  I  feel  that  after  all  I 
never  knew  him  as  I  have  learned  to  know 
him  during  the  few  days  that  I  have  spent 
among   his   papers. 

It  is  not  easy  even  for  one  who  was  inti- 
mate with  Dr.  Wistar  Hodge  to  describe  him. 
One    needs  great  patience,  and  more  discern- 

His 

ment  I  fear  than    I   possess   for   such    a   task  marked 

1  •  T>w         T  T      1  1  1  •         •        character- 

as  this.      Dr.    Hodge    was  the    most  objective  istics. 

man  —  perhaps  that  word  expresses  what  I 
mean  as  well  as  any  I  can  find  —  I  ever 
knew.  You  may  study  him  as  you  study  a 
statue  or  a  portrait,  but  he  will  not  do  any- 
thing for  the  purpose  of  helping  you  to  under- 
stand him.  If  he  is  writing  a  book  review,  he 
will  tell  you  in  the  most  lucid  way  what  the 
author  says,  but  not  what  he  thinks  he  should 
have  said.  If  he  loves  you,  you  may  gather  that 
from  the  way  he  treats  you,  but  he  will  not  tell 
you  so.  If  he  expresses  a  judgment,  it  is  in 
the  same  objective  style,  very  much  as  a  judge 
would  decide  a  point  of  law.     He  will  never 


28 

say,  "  I  am  disposed  to  think  this  or  that ;  "  "  My 
mind  works  in  this  or  that  way."  He  will 
never  invite  you  to  a  colloquy  for  the  purpose 
of  interchanging  experiences ;  and  you  have 
not  been  with  him  long  if  you  have  not  discov- 
ered that  he  cares  very  little  for  your  account  of 
your  subjective  states.  The  consequence  of 
this  is,  that  if  you  wish  to  know  Dr.  Wistar,  you 
must  study  him  inductively  and  read  him  back- 
wards. Dr.  Archie  was  not  that  sort  of  man. 
He  would  always  tell  you  how  truth  impressed 
him  and  what  his  feelings  were;  and  would  let 
you  see  the  working  of  the  machinery  of 
thought,  if  you  cared  to.  When  he  wrote  a 
book  notice,  you  were  very  apt  to  know  what  he 
thought  of  the  man  who  wrote  the  book  and 
what  his  views  were  respecting  the  subject 
He  never   treated ;  though  Dr.  Wistar's  notice,  I  must  sav, 

tried  to  ^  '  y 

please  peo-  would  tell  you  morc  about  the  book  itself.    Now 

pie  for  the  -^ 

making  ^^^  conscquencc  of  this  habit  of  mind  in  Dr. 
terpie^aled  Wistar  was  vcry  marked.  He  was  so  simple, 
with  him.  transparent ;  he  looked  so  steadfastly  out  from 
his  eyes,  and  so  little  backward  into  himself, 
that  he  never  tried  to  please  people  for  the  sake 
of  making  them  better  pleased  with  him.  He 
had  no  vanity ;  he  would  do  nothing  to  encour- 


29 

age  it  in  others.  Hence  you  never  knew  how 
your  story  was  going  to  be  received.  If  it  was 
flat,  he  never  lent  it  any  artificial  buoyancy.  If 
your  joke  was  not  funny,  he  received  it  with  an 
unmoved  countenance.  There  was  thus  at 
times  a  certain  unreciprocativeness  about  him 
that  tended  to  arrest  conversation  or  make  it  a 
monologue.     But    apart  from   this   absence  of  Not  seif- 

regarding. 

subjectivity,  which  I  think  we  all  must  have 
noticed,  there  were  other  features  in  his  char- 
acter which  I  think  could  hardly  be  fully  un- 
derstood except  by  those  who  were  somewhat 
intimate  with  him.  I  never  knew  a  man  to  be 
so  little  influenced  by  self-regarding  motives. 
He  was  a  man  who  simply  lived  for  others 
and  did  his  duty.  There  was  something  in  his 
personal  appearance  that  suggested  this.  We 
shall  not  soon  forget  him.  We  can  see  him 
now  with  his  large  frame  and  fine  proportions 

slowly    sauntering    down    the    street,    or    with  ^is  per- 
sonal ap- 
quickened  pace  and  lecture-book  under  his  arm  pearance. 

coming  from  the  seminary  toward  his  study- 
door.  He  has  the  air  of  a  man  who  is  digni- 
fied without  being  pompous,  and  who,  without 
being  careless  of  personal  appearance,  is  at  the 
same  time  not  thinking  of  himself.    He  seemed 


30 

to  be  without  love  of  fame,  and  indifferent  to 
the  world's  honors.  I  believe  that  the  de- 
sire of  esteem  is  generally  regarded  by  psy- 
chologists as  universal.  I  suppose  that  Dr. 
Hodge  was  not  an  exception  to  the  rule  so  far 
as  this  desire  is  concerned ;  but  I  cannot  recall 
more  than  one  or  two  instances  in  which  he 
showed  any  signs  of  it,  and  then  it  was  in 
such  a  subtle  form,  that  it  may  be  best  de- 
scribed in  the  chemist's  terminology  as  "  a 
A  gener-    tracc."    I  ucvcr  heard  him  complain,  or  express 

ous  appre- 
ciation of   an  envious  thought,  or  utter  a  word  of  cravingr 

the  good  .  .  . 

in  others,  {qj-  anything  for  himself.  When  he  was  ill,  and 
while  he  feared,  but  before  he  knew  the  worst, 
he  had  no  words  for  himself ;  and  no  regrets, 
save  as  he  thought  of  the  loss  that  his  removal 
would  be  to  his  wife  and  children.  And  this 
thoughtfulness  for  others,  descending  to  partic- 
ulars, and  assuming  forms  that  one  can  scarcely 
think  of  save  in  tears,  was  the  one  characteristic 
of  his  illness  to  the  very  last.  Dr.  Hodge  had 
a  warm  heart ;  and  was  always  generous  in  his 
appreciation  of  the  good  in  the  man  about 
whom  he  was  talking  to  you.  But  he  was  pos- 
itive in  his  likes  and  dislikes,  and  he  would 
criticise  a  man's  faults  with  unhesitating  frank- 


ness.  His  strong  emotional  nature  showed  it- 
self in  his  preaching,  for  though  he  had  great 
self-control,  the  close  observer  would  see  that  he 
was  struggling  with  feeling  whenever  an  allu- 
sion to  the  Saviour's  love  passed  his  lips.  Dr. 
Archie  said  to  me  once,  "  Wistar  will  never  let 

you  know  that  he  cares  for\^ou,  but  if  you  were  Full  of  ten- 
der solici- 

in  trouble,  or  one  of  your  children  were  sick,  ^"defor 

•'  others. 

he  would  do  more  for  you  than  anybody  in 
Princeton." 

I  like  to  dwell  upon  the  tender  side  of  Dr. 
Hodge's  nature,  because  it  was  not  the  one 
that  was  generally  seen.  He  was  solicitous 
in  regard  to  his  friends.  If  you  had  lost  tone, 
he  detected  it ;  if  you  were  worried,  or  worn 
out,  or  disposed  to  over-work,  then  would  come 
that  troubled  expression  into  his  face,  and  he 
would  look  you  through  with  that  keen  glance 
of  his  that  might  make  you  wince,  but  that 
certainly  made  you  feel  his  deep  concern  for 
you.  Of  course  it  was  in  his  family  that  this 
deep  solicitude  was  mainly  seen ;  for  he  was 
pre-eminently  a  domestic  man.  He  lived  for 
his  family  and  with  them.  He  was  anxious, 
watchful,  and  capable  of  care-taking  as  few 
fathers  are.    He  loved  to  dine  at  his  own  table, 


32 

and  was  not  fond  of  company  that  he  did  not 

see  in  his  own  house.    He  was  not  a  pubHc  man 

He  never   ^j.g|-    o-ivino:   time    and    thought   to   work  that 

worked  for  '    &  o  o 

eSu""^  would  bring  him  fame  or  emolument,  and  lav- 
"^^"*"  ishing  the  remnants  of  energy  and  affection 
upon  his  children.  He  never  could  have  been 
a  club-man  or  a  man  of  the  world  ;  he  had  no 
pleasures  but  those  of  his  own  fireside;  and 
much  as  he  loved  art  and  appreciated  nature, 
neither  painting  nor  sculpture,  neither  mountain 
nor  lake,  nor  fiord,  would  have  had  sufficient 
attractions  to  induce  him  to  put  the  ocean 
between    himself    and    his   family. 

Of  course,  we  all  know  that  Dr.  Hodge  was 
a  man  of  great  decision  of  character;  his  face 
would  tell  you  that.  No  one  ever  heard  him 
say  that  he  was  immovable ;  but  he  was.  His 
granite  nature  never  yielded.  It  would  bear 
any  pressure  and  make  no  active  resistance ; 
but  it  never  gave  way.  You  could  not  induce 
him  to  sign  a  paper,  or  attend  a  meeting,  or 
buy  a  book,  if  he  had  said  that  he  did  not 
A  man  of  intend  to  do  so.     It  did  not  make  much  differ- 

great  deci- 
sion,        ence  to  him  that  other  people  were  doing  what 

he  was  asked   to  do.      He   did  not  undertake 

to  direct  the  consciences  of  other  people ;   but 


33 

he  kept  full  control  of  his  own.  He  was  not 
arrogant.  He  would  not  force  his  opinion 
upon  you,  nor  insist  on  the  last  word.  He  was 
confident ;  but  he  was  modest.  He  was  not 
obtrusive;  but  he  never  hesitated.  We  always, 
therefore,  knew  where  we  should  find  Dr. 
Hodge.     He  was   not  aggressive,  and  had  no  He  was 

not  ag- 

zeal  for  controversy.      He   was   not  made  for  gressive 

or  contro- 

leadership,  and  did  not  love  it.     He  was  con- y^y^/H'^^^ 

^  held  his 

tented  to  live  alone,  to  think  alone,  and  hold  ^pnvic- 

•    tions 

his  convictions  in   unshared  solicitude  and  in  ^™'y- 
the  calm  confidence  that  he  was  rig^ht. 

It  has  been  my  lot  to  come  into  contact  with 
a  great  many  men,  and  to  become  acquainted 
with  some  at  least  of  those  who  are  actively 
and  prominently  employed  in  the  work  of  the 
great  church  to  which  we  belong.  They  are 
all  good  men  ;  and  they  are  all,  I  am  sure, 
prevailingly  influenced  by  good  motives.  But 
as  I  go  over  the  list  and  think  of  those  with 
whom  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  I  have 
been  acquainted,  —  of  the  weak  men,  the  vain 
men,  the  conceited  men,  the  fickle  men,  the 
tricky  men,  the  men  who  are  always  considering 
policy  instead  of  principle,  and  the  men  who  use 
public  service  as  a  means  of  personal  promotion  ; 

3 


34 

of  the  men  who  say  one  thing  to  you  and  seem- 
ingly the  opposite  to  your  neighbor  ;  of  the  timid 
men,  and  the  men  who  consider  consequences 
rather  than  what  is  right ;  of  the  good  men  who 
will  betray  your  confidence,  and  the  men  whose 
words  you  must  use  with  allowance ;  of  the 
disingenuous  men,  and  the  men  who  exhibit  an 
arri'ere-pensee  manner;  of  the  men  who  have 
an  axe  to  grind,  and  the  men  whose  kindness 
now  is  meant  to  be  a  long  investment,  on 
which  with  compound  interest  added  they 
hope  to  realize  after  many  days ;  —  when  I 
think  of  such  men,  and  then  consider  the  can- 

An  honest  dor,    the    houcsty,    the    unselfishness,    the    un- 
man, with  . 
no  selfish   swcrviue  purpose,  the  calm  ludo-ment,  and  the 

ends  to  &    r      l 

g^i"-  self-contained  and  self-consistent  life  of  Caspar 
Wistar  Hodge,  I  think  he  was  the  grandest 
man   I  ever  knew. 

Now,  this  positiveness  of  nature  in  Dr.  Hodge 
was,  as  you  would  expect,  allied  to,  and  in  part 
occasioned  by,  his  strong  conscientious  devo- 
tion to  principle.  He  was  far-sighted,  and 
looked  down  to  the  roots  of  all  questions. 
When  an  error  was  presented  to  his  notice, 
whether  in  practical  living  or  in  theological 
statement,  he   traced  it  back    to    its   germinal 


35 

principle,  and  ran  it  out  to  its  logical  conse- 
quence. He  was  therefore  always  consistent ; 
and  you  never  found  him  in  a  place  where  you 
had  to  pardon  his  fault  because  it  was  due  to 
the  warping  of  judgment  by  feeling.  This 
phase  of  his  nature  was  conspicuous  in  his  re- 
lif^ious  life.     He  was  devout  rather  than  devo-  a  devout 

man  in  the 

tional,  if  I  make  my  meaning  clear.  Here  ^^st  sense. 
again  his  extremely  objective  nature  must  be 
considered.  He  never  talked  about  his  relig- 
ious states,  nor  indeed  did  he  often  talk  about 
personal  religion  at  all.  There  were  certain 
phases  of  religion  that  he  did  not  like.       He  But  he 

1  1  1111  f    •  1       •  1  1     hated  cant. 

hated  cant ;  and  he  had  no  laith  m  the  mod- 
ern rose-water  evangelism,  that  ignored  the 
guilt  of  sin  and  the  meaning  of  atoning  blood. 
He  believed  in  the  ordinances  of  the  church, 
in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  the  ministry  of 
the  word.  But  he  was  no  friend  of  societies 
and  pledges  and  platforms  and  schemes  of 
faith-cure  and  devices  for  propagating  relig- 
ion by  hot-bed  culture.  He  was  thoroughly 
churchly  in  his  religion,  and  his  church  was 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  had  no  love  forNoiove 
novelties ;    and   he   res:arded    all  schemes  that  em  novei- 

ties. 

fettered    the    individual    conscience    by    man- 


36 

made  regulations  as  new  modes  of  returning 
unto  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements,  where- 
unto  so  many  still  love  to  be  in  bondage. 
So  reticent  was  he,  and  of  so  undemonstra- 
tive a  type  was  his  piety,  that  the  casual  ac- 
quaintance who  happened  only  to  hear  his 
contemptuous  mutter  of  disapproval  of  some  of 
the  modern  forms  of  religious  priggery,  or  who 
heard  him  express  himself  jocosely  in  the  blunt 
and  somewhat  secular  style  of  speech  that  he 
sometimes  employed  might  wonder  whether  he 
Spiritually  was    a   spiritually-mindcd    man.     No  one  ever 

minded, 

butreti-     doubtcd  that  who  ever  heard  him  pray.      Of 

cent  about 

personal    coursc  3,  man  must  reveal  himself  in  his  pul- 

religion. 

pit  exercises.  Try  as  he  may  to  hide  himself, 
his  personality  must  then  appear ;  for  it  is 
what  one  is  himself,  and  what  one  feels  him- 
self to  be  and  to  desire,  that  he  presents  to 
God  as  the  confession  and  prayer  of  others. 
Dr.  Hodge's  prayers  were  helpful,  comprehen- 
sive, and  rich  in  experience.  They  went  heaven- 
ward freighted  with  human  wants.  There  were 
no  flights  of  imagination  in  them.  He  did  not 
soar  on  easy  wing,  as  Dr.  Archie  did.  There 
was  no  rhapsody;  nor  did  these  public  utter- 
ances have  the  smooth  liturgical  flow  one  some- 


37 

times  hears.  But  on  the  other  hand,  they  were 
not  commonplace  nor  didactic,  nor  full  of  hack- 
neyed expressions  and  threadbare  quotations 
from  Scripture.  They  were  not  shallow :  they 
did  not  abound,  as  prayers  so  often  do,  in  un- 
meaning ejaculation  ;  they  were  at  the  utmost  His  public 

^  prayers 

remove    from    the    thin    utterances    of    senti-  outpour- 
ings of  a 

mentality  that,  I  regret  to  say,  are  beginning  ^^i'  h^^"- 
to  invade  the  pulpit.  They  were  the  simple, 
earnest  outpourings  of  a  full  heart,  —  of  a  soul 
that  had  come  to  learn  its  needs,  and  had 
learned  to  come  to  God  in  childlike  confi- 
dence for  the  supply  of  its  necessities,  —  of  a 
soul  that  carried  its  own  burdens,  and  the 
burdens  of  others  also,  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
There  was  always  such  delicate  appreciation 
of  suffering,  such  a  touch  of  sympathy  in  what 
he  said,  such  considerate  thought  of  others 
in  his  petitions,  and  such  an  unaffected  gen- 
tleness of  tone,  that  you  could  not  help  the 
feeling  that  a  full-hearted  man  was  talking 
with  God  in  your  behalf. 

***** 

I  have   been  greatly   instructed    by  reading  Dr.  Hodge 

as  a 

Dr.   Hodge's   sermons.     He    was  always  a  fa-  Preacher. 
vorite  preacher  with  theological  students.     He 


38 

was  not  what  is  usually  called  a  popular 
preacher,  nor  did  he  enjoy  popular  preaching. 
When  he  was  in  Oxford  he  was  in  the  habit,  I 
am  told,  of  preaching  extemporaneously  in  a 
little  church  at  or  near  Nottingham,  though  he 
never  was  willing  to  appear  without  his  manu- 
script in  Oxford.  I  was  told,  only  a  few  days 
ago,  that  one  of  the  most  intelligent  men  in 
Oxford  still  remembers  the  pleasure  that  he  de- 
rived from  those  extemporaneous  discourses  in 
the  little  Nottingham  church.  I  like  to  recall 
this  incident  because,  as  we  all  know.  Dr. 
Hodge  had  great  repugnance  to  extempora- 
neous preaching ;  never  practising  it  himself, 
and  never  becoming  reconciled  to  it  in  others. 
Recoiiec-    His  owu  preaching  we  all   remember.     He  had 

tions  of  his 

preaching,  a  voicc  of  marvcllous  richness ;  but  he  would 
never  use  it  for  oratorical  effect.  He  employed 
rhetorical  forms  of  statement  very  sparingly. 
He  preached  apparently  with  the  consciousness 
that  the  gospel  message  should  make  its  appeal 
to  men  in  majestic  simplicity,  and  that  God's 
word  did  not  need  the  aid  of  human  art  to 
give  it  power  or  beauty.  He  made  no  attempt 
to  decorate  the  earthen  vessel  that  contained 
the  heavenly   treasure,  —  that    the   excellency 


39 

of  the  power   might   be  of  God.      I  remember 

well  a  sermon  that  he  preached  when  I  was  in 

the  seminary.    There  were  sentences  in  it  that  His  ser- 
mons 
fastened  themselves  upon  my  memory.    The  text  n?odeis  of 

''  •'  simiilicity. 

was,  "  Thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus."  I  have 
read  that  sermon  during  the  past  week.  But  I 
remember  as  well  as  though  it  were  yesterday 
the  thrill  that  went  through  me  when  after  tell- 
ing us  how  important  it  was  that  the  name  of 
the  Messiah,  though  a  new  name,  should  not  be 
unfamiliar,  but,  he  went  on  to  say,  —  "a  name 
for  homely  uses,  for  the  virgin  mother  to  mur- 
mur over  her  child;  a  name  heard  in  the 
household  of  Nazareth  when  Jesus  the  carpen- 
ter's son  was  known  by  the  neighbors  amongr 
his  brethren  and  sisters ;  a  name  welcome  in 
the  highways  of  Galilee,  and  discussed  by  agita- 
ted masses  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  ;  a  name 
for  the  home  in  Bethany,  and  which  Pilate  could 
nail  to  the  cross."  The  outline  of  that  sermon 
is  impressed  upon  my  memory,  along  with  a 
few  others,  like  Addison  Alexander's  on  the 
Importunate  Widow,  Ker's  on  the  Burial  of 
Moses,  and  F.  W.  Robertson's  on  Christian 
Progress  by  Forgetfulness  of  the  Past ;  so  that 
I  could  never  preach  on  that  text,  just   as  I 


40 

could  never  preach  on  the  texts  upon  which  the 
other  sermons  that  I  have  referred  to  are 
founded,  without  running  the  risk  of  uncon- 
scious plagiarism.  Dr.  Hodge  seems  to  have 
written  currente  calamo,  and  with  few  changes. 
He  never  made  sentences  for  their  artistic 
Without    effect ;  and  there  is  not  much  warmth  of  color 

much 

warmth  of  in  his  rhetoric,  except  when  he  touches  on  spir- 

color. 

itual  things,  and  especially  on  the  soul's  rela- 
tion to  Christ.      Of    feeling  that    is    hot    and 
scornful,   or  that    is    buoyant  and  triumphant, 
there  is  little  or  none.     But  of  feeling  that  is 
tender  and  subdued,  and  so  controlled  as  just 
to  be  suggestive  of  pathos,  there  is  no  lack. 
The  sermons  of  Dr.  Hodge's  later  years  were 
the  results  of  his  profound  exegetical  studies. 
It  would  be  possible  to  gather  a  pretty  full  sys- 
tematic theology  out  of  his  sermons  alone ;  but 
the  theological  statements  are  woven  into  the 
discussion,  and  are  introduced  as  illustrating  or 
as  involved  in  the  text.     They  are  presented  as 
an   exegete,  and  not  as   a  dogmatician  would 
present  them.       The  sermons  of    later    years 
They  are    abouudcd  in  subtlc  references  to  New  Testa- 
Biblicar'  ment  ideas.     They  were  really  studies  in   Bib- 
theoiogy.    |.^^|  theology  ;  and  while  they  were  beyond  the 


41 

grasp  and  abounded  in  distinctions  that  would 
escape  the  notice  of  an  ordinary  audience,  they 
were  model  discourses  for  the  seminary  pulpit. 
It  was  an  intellectual  treat  to  notice  the  artist- 
like finish  that  was  given  to  these  sermons,  to 
watch  the  ease  and  naturalness  with  which  he 
handled  his  material.     He  was  so  familiar  with 
the  thoughts,  with  the  language,  and  with  the 
development  of  ideas   in   the  New  Testament, 
that  as  soon  as  his  mind  began  to  work  upon  a 
text,  the  whole  contextual  setting,  and  the  whole 
New  Testament  in  fact,  began  to  contribute  to 
its  elucidation.     The  thought  was  so  rich,  the 
texture  so  fine,  the  whole  effect  so  artistic,  and 
yet  it  was  done  with  such  simplicity,  and  the 
sermon  was  delivered  in  such  an  unemphatic 
manner,  that  I  dare  say  the  great  merits  of  Dr. 
Hodge's  sermons    were   never   understood   by 
many   of  those  who  heard  him.      He  was  not 
the  man  to  indicate   the   strong  points  of  his 
sermon  as  he  went  along,  and  by  emphasis  and 
accent  and  change  of  tone  let  his  hearers  know 
what  he  thought  was  the  part  of  the  sermon  that 
they  ought  to  appreciate. 

I  have    said    that  these  sermons  were  stud-  ^^^  ser- 
mons m 
les    in   Biblical  theology ;    but  they  were  ser-  'heiess. 


42 

No  sermon  mons  too.     He  never  preached  that  he  did  not 

that  had 

not  a  spir-  tcach  3.  lesson  or  touch  the  conscience.     What 

itual  les- 
son- a  splendid  presentation  of  the  fourfold  place  of 

the  resurrection  in  the  New  Testament  is  the 
sermon  on  the  text,  "  That  I  may  know  Him 
and  the  power  of  His  resurrection  !  "  How  ten- 
derly as  he  closes  he  speaks  of  the  difficulty  of 
appreciating  the  unseen  :  "  In  the  struggles,  and 
cares,  and  vexations,  and  especially  in  the  sins 
of  life,  how  hard  it  is  to  know  inwardly  and  ex- 
perimentally the  waking  of  the  life  of  resurrec- 
tion !  And  death  —  Ah  !  as  we  go  along  in  life 
we  become  no  better  reconciled  to  the  thought. 
Indeed,  to  the  high-hearted  enthusiasm  of  youth 
it  may  be  even  less  terrible  than  to  the  sober 
understanding  of  experience.  We  become  famil- 
iar, less  sensitive,  hardened  by  use.  But  it 
remains  the  same  bitter,  ruthless,  unclean  enemy 
to  the  end ;  wrenching  from  us  our  joy,  and  us 
from  the  light  of  life."  That  is  also  a  fine  spe- 
cimen of  Dr.  Hodge's  sermonizing  which  we 
have  in  the  discourse  on  Gal.  iv.  4-6,  "  And  be- 
cause ye  are  sons,  God  hath  sent  forth  the  Spirit 
of  his  Son,"  etc.  It  is,  as  all  his  sermons  are,  full 
of  exegetical  subtlety  and  delicate  shading  of 
thought.     But   I   pity  the  man  whose  heart  is 


43 

not  touched  as  he  leaves  the  church  with  the 
sound  of  these  words,  spoken  in  the  subdued, 
rich  tones  of  suppressed  emotion,  lingering  in 
his  ears :  "  And  can  there  be  a  sadder  or 
more  moving  thought  to  the  conscience  than 
to  feel  that  one  is  living  in  his  Father's  house, 
and  on  his  Father's  bounty,  and  receiving  daily 
tokens  of  tender  and  forbearing  love  —  and  yet, 
an  unforgiven  child,  asking  no  pardon,  showing 
no  true  obedience,  rebellious,  ungrateful,  and 
without  love.  Life  offers  nothinor  better  than 
father  love  and  mother  love ;  nothing  stronger, 
nothing  purer,  nothing  so  sure.  But  both  are 
combined  in  God,  and  raised  to  the  unlimited 
measure  of  divinity.  Pray  thus,  and  after  this 
manner  pray  ye :  '  Our  Father,  who  art  in 
heaven.' " 

Dr.  Hodge's  sermons  were  prepared  with 
reference  to  the  wants  of  the  audience  that  is 
in  the  habit  of  meeting  in  the  chapel  of  the 
theological    seminary.       They    are    university  They  are 

r         1-1  1  ^T^i  University 

sermons  ot  a  high  order.     They  are  more  than  sermons. 
that.     They  are  sermons  addressed  to  a  partic- 
ular class  of  university  men,  —  addressed,  that 
is   to  say,  to  theological  students.     They  pre- 
supposed   too   much    acquaintance  with    theo- 


44 

logical  opinion  to  be  popular  sermons.  They 
were  too  fine  in  their  texture  to  be  sought  after 
by  ordinary  congregations.  They  were  full  of 
subtle  thinking,  but  always  practical.  In  these 
sermons  Dr.  Hodge  dealt  with  current  errors 
and  new  movements  in  theology.  The  good 
sides  of  the  movements  were  recognized;  but 
the  errors  they  involved  were  exposed  not 
simply  as  departures  from  the  doctrines  of  the 
church,  but  as  involving  departures  of  a  practi- 
cal kind  in  religious  experience.  This,  indeed, 
is  the  characteristic  of  his  preaching.  His  the- 
ology comes  directly,  and  by  deft  and  delicate 
analysis, from  the  New  Testament;  it  is  brought 
into  practical  relation  with  religious  experience; 
and  the  errors  of  the  day  are  presented  to  the 
Addressed  vicw  of  men  who  are  candidates  for  the  min- 

to  candi- 
dates for    istry  not  as  though    the   preacher  were   a  de- 

the  minis- 
try- fender  of  the  faith,  or  a  professed  champion  of 

orthodoxy,  but  a  Christian   friend   who  would 

,warn  his  hearers  against  evil  tendencies  which 

can  only  cripple  their  work  and   weaken  their 

faith.     I  do  not  know  a  better  illustration  of 

what   I   mean   than   the   sermon  on  John    xvi. 

12-15  ■  "  I  have  many  things  to  say  unto  you," 

etc.  ...   It  is  a  very  masterly  exhibition  of  the 


45 

work  of  the  Spirit  in  inspiring  the  apostles  and  The  watch- 
word of  a 
illuminatino:  Christians.     The   new  doctrine  of  "^o^em 

school. 

the  "  Christian  Consciousness,"  and  the  false 
theories  of  inspiration  which  are  now  current,  of 
course  come  in  for  notice ;  and  the  preacher 
closes  with  a  reference  to  the  modern  watchword 
of  "  Back  to  Christ,"  from  which  I  quote  a  few 
sentences,  because  I  think  that  they  embody 
what  Dr.  Hodg^e  would  wish  to  be  his  messaee 
to  you  to-day. 

"  Your  future  ministry,"  he  said,  "  is  cast  in 
times  of  great  theological  unrest.  Founda- 
tions are  broken  up ;  truths  long  accepted  are 
brought  anew  into  question ;  the  very  princi- 
ples upon  which  the  certitude  of  belief  is  to 
rest  are  under  debate.  There  is  no  use  in 
these  days  for  men  of  light  and  easy  temper, 
who  make  up  their  judgment  hastily  on  the 
most  vital  questions,  or  who  like  to  be  in  ad- 
vance of  all  changes,  and  easily  renounce  the 
most  sacred  heritages.  Men  should  be  sober 
and  thoughtful.  They  should  be  students  of 
history;  they  should  be  prayerful  students  of 
the  Bible.  Change  is  not  necessarily  advance. 
The  majestic  testimony  of  the  church  in  all 
time  is,  that  its  advances  in  spiritual  life  have 


46 

always  been  toward  and  not  away  from  the 
Bible,  and  in  proportion  to  its  reverence  for  and 
power  of  realizing  in  practical  life  the  revealed 
word.  The  watchword  of  the  modern  school 
is  on  every  hand,  '  Back  to  Christ.'  Surely  we 
say  'Amen.'  From  every  department  of  thought 
"Back  to  or  life  let  us  go  back  to  Christ.     But  it  is  one 

Christ."  _  ^  _  ^  . 

thing  to  realize  afresh  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Christ  in  the  historic  spirit  in  relation  to  what 
is  to  come  as  the  germinal  planting  of  a  future 
harvest  of  life  and  doctrine :  it  is  a  very  dif- 
ferent thing  to  go  back  to  Christ  by  the  rejection 
of  all  subsequent  revelation  which  is  based  on 
his  authority,  and  is  the  living  development 
of  his  teaching.  They  tell  us  that  it  is  not  the 
Christ  of  the  creeds.  The  church  has  lost  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  because  she  has  attended  to 
the  doctrine  about  him  ;  confirming  in  schol- 
astic forms  its  conceptions,  disputing  about 
unsubstantiality  and  person,  and  nature  and 
satisfaction  to  justice,  and  losing  the  living- 
pulse  of  sympathy  and  love  and  practical  life 
in  her  teaching.  So  far  as  the  church  has  sacri- 
ficed life  to  mere  theological  science,  it  is  to  be 
repented  and  amended.  But  when  the  process 
of  generalization  and  definition,  and  co-ordina- 


47 

tion  of  Scripture  fact  is  sneered  at,  the  charge 
is  simple  puerility ;  and  when  the  assertion  is 
made  that  logical  definition  has  interfered  with 
reverential  love  and  obedience,  it  is  a  reckless 
slander  of  the  Spirit-led  history  of  the  church 
of  Christ." 

***** 

But  of  course  Dr.  Hodge's  great  work  was  Dr.  Hodge 
done   in    the    lecture-room.      He  concentrated  fesso/° 
his  powers  upon  the  work  of  preparing  for  his 
classes.     He  did  not  scatter  his  energies.     He 
was  not  engaged  in  various  pursuits.     He  did 
not  use  the  reputation  made  in  other  fields  to 
make    up  for  the  lack  of  honest  work  in  the 
field  that  he  was  responsible  for.     He  did  not 
allow  his  department  to  suffer  by  reason  of  a 
vain    ambition    to   cover  all   departments  and 
profess  omniscience.     His  department  was  the 
New    Testament,    and    he    kept    rigidly   to  it. 
His  duties   were   those  of  a  professor  in    the 
seminary ;   he   had  no  engagements  that  con- 
flicted   with    his   appointments   there.      Other 
men  might  have  reasons  more  or  less  satisfac- 
tory for  an  occasional   failure  to   meet  a  class 
or   attend    a   meeting   of  the    faculty,    but   he 
was  always  at  his  post.     One  thing  he  had  to 


48 

do,  and  he  did  it.  He  was  a  professor  of  the 
seminary ;  and  no  one  in  the  list  of  learned 
men  who  have  adorned  its  faculty  ever  served 
with  more  single-eyed  devotion  and  more  sig- 
nal ability.  Dr.  Hodge  was  a  man  of  exact 
scholarship  and  refined  taste.  He  had  a  deli- 
cate sense  of  distinctions  and  a  most  penetrat- 
ing judgment.  He  brought  these  qualities 
with  him  to  the  service  of  his  chair,  and  made 
his  subsequent  attainments  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  needs  of  his  department.  He  was 
a  man  of  wide  general  information,  and  was 
well  informed  in  regard  to  secular  affairs.  He 
had  a  retentive  memory,  an  unusual  ability  of 
getting  quickly  at  the  core  of  a  pending  ques- 
tion, and  a  cool,  discriminating,  judicial  tem- 
Courses  of  per.     Sixteen  large  octavo  volumes  of  closely 

lectures  ,  .  r   i   •      r    •    i   r    i 

during       wnttcn  manuscript  tell  the  story  of  his  faithful 

thirty 

years.  work  during  thirty  years  of  professorial  life. 
There  is  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  "  New 
Testament  Canon,"  one  on  the  "  Life  of  our 
Lord,"  one  on  the  "  History  and  Literature  of 
the  Apostolic  Church,"  and  courses  of  exegetical 
lectures  on  John's  Gospel,  Romans,  i  Corin- 
thians, Galatians,  Ephesians,  Philippians,  Col- 
ossians,    and    Hebrews.     It  is   easy   to  see  as 


49 

one  looks  through  this  mass  of  manuscript, 
that  the  work  has  been  done  with  painstak- 
ing care,  and  the  writer  is  master  of  his 
material. 

The  courses  on  the  "Life  of  Christ"  and 
the  "  Apostolic  Church "  took  the  greatest 
hold  upon  the  students.  I  am  not  saying  too 
much,  —  and  it  is  not  said  as  in  any  way 
implying  a  relative  depreciation  of  the  other 
departments,  —  if  I  say  that  the  students  car- 
ried more  out  of  Dr.  Wistar's  class-room  into 
the  actual  work  of  pulpit  preparation  than  out 
of  any  other.  It  was  in  that  class-room  that 
they  came  into  direct  contact  with  the  words 
of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  It  was  there  that 
they  were  brought  into  closest  relation  with 
the  controversies  concerning  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity.    In  other  class-rooms,  to  be  sure,  they  His  influ- 

...  .  .  ence  on  his 

dealt  with   the  discussions  concerninsf  the  ex- students. 

O 

istence  of  God,  or  the  nature  of  inspiration, 
or  the  truth  of  prophecy,  or  the  authorship  of 
the  "  Pentateuch  ; "  but  in  Dr.  Wistar's  room 
they  saw  how  men  attacked  the  very  citadel 
of  Christianity.  Under  his  guidance,  they 
fought  over  again  the  battles  of  the  higher 
criticism  in  the  gospel   question,  the  question 

4 


5Q 

concerning  the  letters  of  St.  Paul,  and  St. 
Paul's  own  relation  to  Christ  and  the  apostles 
of  the  circumcision.  The  questions  that  Dr. 
Wistar  dealt  with  were  those  that  involved 
the  very  life  of  Christianity. 

There   are  many  ways  in  which  a  professor 

might    deal    with    the   subjects    presented    to 

him    in    this    great   department.       He   might 

ignore  the  questions  of  modern  criticism,  and 

He  did  not  say  that  the  seminary  was  no  place  for  bring- 

ignore  crit- 
ical diffi     ing  men  into  acquamtance  with  modern  doubt. 

culties. 

But  Dr.  Hodge  was  too  wise  a  man  for  that. 
He  did  not  teach  a  Sunday-school.  He  knew 
that  fuU-srown  men  with  cultivated  intellects 
could  not  be  kept  from  reading  rationalistic 
books.  He  acted  upon  the  manly  plan  of 
meeting  false  criticism  by  true  criticism,  and 
of  showing  that  a  true  inductive  method  does 
not  lead  to  the  barren  conclusions  that  the 
critics  claim.  Or  he  might  shirk  the  diffi- 
culties presented,  and  make  up  for  lack  of 
argument  by  boldness  of  assertion.  But  this 
would  imply  one  of  two  things,  either  that 
the  professor  is  poorly  equipped,  or  that  Chris- 
tianity has  no  case.  Dr.  Hodge,  however, 
was    too   honest    a  man   to    adopt    a   method 


51 

like  this.  He  knew  his  ground,  and  he  had 
confidence  in  the  truth  of  his  cause.  Or,  aeain, 
it  would  have  been  easy  for  a  man  in  Dr. 
Hodges  position  to  mark  off  a  little  princi- 
pality on  the  map  of  "  New  Testament  Litera- 
ture," which  he  could  make  his  own ;  winning 
fame  as  a  specialist,  while  neglecting  his  duty 
as  a  general  teacher.     I  wish,  indeed,  that  he 

had  evinced  more  love  of  fame ;  but,  as  I  have  No  neg- 
lect of 
said,   he  had  no  vanity,  and  moreover  he  had  4"ty  in  or- 

•'  der  to  de- 

little  faith  in  novelties.     Or  yet  a2:ain,  a  pro- ^°";?  •^''^■ 

-'  &         '  1  self  to  a 

fessor  in  his  department  might  easily,  and  specialty. 
perhaps  without  intending  it,  have  made  the 
academic  lecture  the  occasion  of  sowino;  the 
seeds  of  doubt  in  the  minds  of  those  who  were 
looking  up  to  him  for  guidance.  The  worst 
heresy  is  a  half-truth,  because  it  is  so  hard  to 
deal  with  it:  — 

"  A  lie  tliat  is  all  a  lie  can  be  met  and  fought  with  outright, 
But  a  lie  that  is  half  a  truth  is  a  harder  matter  to  fight." 

There  are  so  many  reasons  that  can  be 
given  for  this  bad  influence  in  the  class-room. 
Men  are  ambitious,  and  seek  notoriety.  They 
love  to  be  thought  original,  and  they  step  out 
of  the  beaten  path.  Men  raise  the  cry  of  pro- 
gress, and   think   what  is  new   is   an   improve- 


52__ 

He  did  not  ment.       Mcii     find    themselves     in      unstable 

sow  the 

seeds  of     equilibrium     between     the    old    and    the    new 

doubt  111  ^ 

o'rhis'"'^-^  modes  of  thinking,  and  they  adopt  a  para- 
P"'^"  doxical  and  inconsistent  style  of  utterance. 
They  try  to  pour  the  new  wine  into  the  old 
bottles.  They  teach  orthodoxy  with  the  voice, 
and  suggest  heresy  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoul- 
ders. But  there  was  nothing  of  all  this  in  Dr. 
Hodge.  He  was  a  reverent  believer  in  the 
Bible  as  the  word  of  God,  and  in  the  doctrines 
of  the  Bible  as  they  are  formulated  in  the 
creed  of  his  church.  He  was  honest,  fair- 
minded,  and  firm.  ^He  saw  diflficulties,  and 
when  it  was  necessary  held  his  judgment  in 
suspense.  He  knew  the  resources  of  the 
enemy,  and  did  not  underrate  them.  But  he 
also  knew  the  argumentative  resources  of 
Christianity.  The  consequence  was  that  his 
lectures  strengthened  faith  and  deepened  con- 
viction ;  and  men  who  had  no  great  critical 
sagacity  themselves  felt  that  they  had  been 
reinforced  immensely  by  the  fact  that  they 
had  a  man  of  Dr.  Hodge's  scholarship  and 
judgment  on  the  side  of  the  theology  of  the 
catechism. 

There  was  in  Dr.  Hodge's  lectures  no  aim- 


53 

ing  at  originality  and  no  attempt  at  intellectual 
display.  But  there  was  nothing  perfunctory 
about  them.  Because  they  were  orthodox, 
they  were  not  on  that  account  exhibitions  of 
lifeless  intellectualism.  Men  who  have  lis- 
tened to  both  Weiss  and  Dr.  Hodge  have 
told  me  that  while  Weiss  was  more  brilliant, 
Dr.  Caspar's  judgment  —  the  students  always 
called  him  Dr.  Caspar,  I  believe  —  on  dis- 
puted points  was  more  trustworthy.  And 
men  who  make  no  attempt  to  compare  the 
great  German  and  the  great  American  pro- 
fessor of    New  Testament  literature    unite    in 

bearing  testimony  to  the  religious  impression  His  stu- 
dents ear- 
that    the     students    always    carried     from     Dr.  rieda 

religious 

Hodge's  lecture-room.     Says  one    of  his    stu-  impression 

from  iiis 

dents   (I   quote  from  a  letter  kindly  sent  me '^<=*"''^- 

^  -'  room. 

by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dulles):  "And  back  of  his 
direct  class-room  work  there  was  the  strong: 
influence  of  Dr.  Hodge's  religious  faith,  quiet 
and  deep,  showing  in  his  sermons  in  the 
chapel,  and  perhaps  yet  more  in  his  singularly 
simple  and  uplifting  prayers  in  the  oratory. 
His  pupils  felt  that  he  was  a  man  who  first  of 
all  served  the  Master,  —  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and    the   Life,  —  a  man   who  loved   the  truth, 


54 

who  tried  to  get  at  the  truth,  not  circuitously, 
but  directly,  —  a  man  who  was  thoroughly  at 
home  in  his  own  department  of  theological 
learning,  and  who  concentrated  upon  that  de- 
partment the  force  of  an  uncommonly  strong 
mind  and  the  undivided  study  of  a  consecrated 
life." 

I  must  find  room  to  quote  from  still  another 

letter.     It  also  comes  from  one  of  Dr.  Hodge's 

Recoiiec-   admiring  pupils  ;   I  refer  to  the  Rev.  Paul  Van 

tions  of  Oil' 

another     Dykc.     "  Mv  recollcctions  are  of  a  clear  and 

student.  ^  " 

rather  low-toned  voice,  flowing  on  agreeably 
and  easily,  bringing  out  perfectly  the  meaning 
of  each  sentence,  but  giving  no  additional 
emphasis  either  by  word  or  gesture  to  the 
striking  ideas ;  a  manner  which  seemed  almost 
the  result  of  shyness,  that  shrank  from  obtrud- 
ing the  strong  points  in  his  lectures.  It  re- 
quired attention  to  get  into  the  flow  of  his 
thought ;  but  once  in  it  the  hearer  was  carried 
along  as  pleasantly  and  as  smoothly  as  by  the 
current  of  some  fair,  strong,  and  yet  gentle 
stream.  There  was  the  charm  of  carefully 
shaded  expressions,  the  progress  of  beau- 
tifully articulated  thought,  the  indefinable 
grace    of  deep    and  mature    scholarship.     His 


55 

language  was  the  language  of  the  gentle- 
man and  the  friend  of  books,  his  method  the 
method  of  the  scholar,  his  thought  the  thought 
of  an  historico-critical  mind  of  the  first  order, 
trained  by  a  lifetime  of  careful  judgment.  .  .  . 
I  have  never  talked  with  any  of  Dr.  Caspar's 
pupils  capable  of  judgment  who  would  accord 
to  him  as  a  specialist  and  a  scholar  any  but  the 
first  rank.  Nevertheless,  the  most  character- 
istic  thing  in  his  courses  was  not  their  critical 
nor  historical,  nor  scholarly  ability.  Remark- 
able as  they  were  in  these  respects,  they  pos- 
sessed a  still  more  rare  and  subtle  distinction. 
The  influence  which  came  from  them  to  the 
sympathetic  hearer  was  a  religious  influence." 

Dr.  Hodge  did  not  write  for  the  press.     His 
ideals  were  very  high,  and   I   think  that  dis- 
satisfaction even  with  his  best  works  had  some- 
thing to    do  with   his   resisting  all   efforts    to 
induce   him  to  publish  a  book.      He  had  noHt... 
ambition  to  make  a  name  for  himself  by  con-  Snsfo 
tributions  to  the  Reviews.     He  felt  the  great  lotTte '" 
importance    of   controversial    writing;    but   he  pubHc! 
had  been   accustomed   in   all   his  early  life   to 
see  that  work  done  by  his  father,  and  it  did  not 


le  re- 


56 

suit  his  temperament  to  become  a  public  leader 
of  thought.  He  was,  however,  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  theological  movements  of  his  own 
day,  and  particularly  those  of  his  own  church  ; 
and  indirectly  was  influencing  the  church 
much  more  than  was  generally  supposed.  He 
saw  no  reason,  as  the  result  of  his  profound 
study  of  the  New  Testament,  to  abandon  any 
of  the  theology  that  he  had  been  taught.  He 
believed  in  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  was  a  Calvinist  of  a  type  perhaps 
a  little  higher  than  his  father.  He  was  not 
Hisatti-    in    sympathy  with    the   agitation    in    favor   of 

tude  to-  -^      ^  -^  ° 

ward  the    ^  rcvision   of  the  Westminster   Confession  of 

Revision 

movement.  Paith.  It  was  not  bccausc  he  felt  that  in 
minor  statements  it  was  incapable  of  improve- 
ment, but  because  he  knew  that  our  terms 
c  V  of  subscription  were  liberal  enough  to  remove 
every  burden  from  the  conscience  of  any  man 
who  heartily  believed  in  generic  Calvinism. 
He  also  felt,  as  others  did,  that  it  would  be 
hard  to  arrest  a  movement  after  it  had  begun  ; 
and,  moreover,  that  while  older  men  might  be 
satisfied  with  a  softening  of  the  harcfer  lines 
of  Calvinism,  there  would  be  no  inconsider- 
able  number  of  younger  men   who   would   be 


57 

willing  to  see  the  Calvinistic  elements  elim- 
inated. He  also  knew  that  Calvinism  is  at- 
tacked to-day,  not  so  much  upon  the  ground 
that  we  have  misread  Paul,  as  that  we  have  al- 
lowed Paul  too  large  a  place  in  our  theology. 
He  knew  that  loose  views  of  inspiration,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Christian  Consciousness,  and  the 
extravagant  claims  advanced  for  the  new  dis- 
cipline of  Biblical  theology,  were  all  parts  of 
the  same  movement,  and  that  there  was  great 
danger,  in  attempting  to  revise  the  Confession, 
of  precipitating  a  discussion  of  a  very  radical 
nature. 

Dr.    Hodge    was    himself  a   student   and    a  His  ad- 
vocacy of 
teacher  of  Biblical  Theolog^v,  and  as  far  back  a  chair  of 

^-^       ^  Biblical 

as  1883  he  advocated  its  claims  to  a  place  Theology. 
in  our  theological  curriculum  in  the  introduc- 
tory lecture  which  he  delivered  that  year.  He 
showed  us  then  that,  apart  from  false  presup- 
positions. Biblical  theology  lent  no  support  to 
what  is  called  "  the  new  theology  ; "  and  he 
believed,  and  was  right  in  believing,  that  apart 
from  the  inherent  attractiveness  and  impor- 
tance of  the  subject  itself,  the  best  way  to 
protect  the  church  against  the  errors  that  are 
commonly  sheltered  under  the  wing  of  Biblical 


58 

theology  would  be  to  erect  a  chair  for  the 
cultivation  of  this  discipline  in  our  own  theo- 
logical seminary.  Dr.  Hodge  knew  that  the 
attack  upon  Calvinism  through  the  new  the- 
ology was  made  by  bringing  Paul's  teaching 
to  the  test  of  human  feeling.  He  saw  that 
the  attack  consisted  not  so  much  in  denying 
that  Paul  said  what  is  alleged,  but  in  denying 
that  his  opinions  are  necessarily  binding  upon 
/  kt^and     "^'     Minimizing  the   authority  of   Paul,   how- 

sorrow      evcr,  Icads  to  minimizing  the  sfospel  story,  and 

concerning  o  o      jr  ji 

Theoio^  ends  in  reducing  our  religion  to  the  compass 
of  the  three  synoptic  Gospels,  —  ends  in  redu- 
cing Christianity  to  the  religion  of  the  indi- 
vidual conscience,  —  ends  in  naturalism.  He 
saw  this ;  and  because  he  saw,  or  thought  he 
saw,  that  the  church  was  blind,  and  her  leaders 
blind,  he  was  depressed  and' saddened.  I  can- 
not think  of  him  to-day  without  feeling  that 
by  his  death  he  has  been  spared  increasing 
sorrow.  I  may  be  wrong ;  but  it  seems  to  me 
that  American  Christianity  is  about  to  pass 
through  a  severe  ordeal.  It  may  be  a  ten 
years'  conflict,  it  may  be  a  thirty  years'  war  ; 
but  it  is  a  conflict  in  which  all  Christian 
churches  are  concerned.     The  war  will  come. 


59 

The  Presbyterian  Church  must  take  part  in 
it ;  and  Princeton,  unless  her  glory  is  departed, 
must  lead  the  van  in  the  great  fighfe  for  funda- 
mental Christianity.  It  is  not  amendment,  it 
is  not  revision,  it  is  not  restatement,  it  is  a 
revolution  that  we  shall  have  to  face.  The 
issue  will  be  joined  by  and  by  on  the  essential 
truth  of  a  miraculous  and  God-given  revela- 
tion; and  then  we  must  be  ready  to  fight,  and 
if  need  be  to  die,  in  defence  of  the  blood-bought 
truths  of  the  common  salvation. 
***** 
Five   years   asfo   to-day  we   assembled    here  The  third 

J  <->  ■>  great  Stan- 

at   the    funeral   of    Dr.    Archibald    Alexander  dard- 

Bearer. 

Hodge.  His  life-long  friend,  Dr.  Paxton,  paid 
a  fitting  tribute  to  his  worth.  And  now  we 
are  here  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  our 
third  2;i"eat  standard-bearer  who  bore  this  hon- 
ored  name.  We  are  sad ;  but  let  us  not  lose 
heart.  Elisha,  whoever  he  may  be,  may  well 
cry,  "  Where  is  the  Lord  God  of  Elijah  ? "  but 
let  us  comfort  ourselves  with  Dr.  Paxton's 
words :  "  What  God  did  for  our  departed 
brother  and  for  the  fathers  who  have  gone 
before  us  in  this  seminary  is  but  a  type  and 
promise  of  what  he  will  do  for  us." 


6o 

\ 

I    have    said    that   Dr.   Hodge    was   greatly 

depressed  by  the  condition  of  things  in  our 
church.  I  think  that  his  depression  goes  back 
to  his  brother's  death.  He  missed  him  sadly. 
Naturally  he  was  cheerful,  companionable,  and 
when  he  unbent  in  the  freedom  of  his  home, 
was  entertaining,  and  though  quiet,  had  a  vein 
of  subtle  humor  that  was  very  delightful. 
There  was  perceptibly  less  of  this  in  the  last 
year  or  two ;  though  he  kept  his  bantering 
manner  almost  to  the  last,  sometimes  appa- 
rently to  divert  an  expression  of  sympathy 
from  himself.  I  need  not  tell  the  story  of  his 
His  last     illness,  —  the  reluctance  with  which  he  found 

illness  and 

reluctance  himsclf    forccd    to    abandon    the  work  of    his 

to  leave 

his  work,  class-room,  and  the  long  weeks  of  low  fever 
in  the  early  spring.  We  all  hoped  that 
change  of  air  would  do  him  good ;  and  when 
we  knew  that  he  had  reached  the  moun- 
tains, we  felt  that  improvement  would  soon 
set  in.  But  it  did  not  come  ;  and  it  became 
manifest  at  last  that  nothing  could  be  gained 
by  longer  absence  from  home.  For  that  sad 
journey  back  the  kindest  preparations  were 
made.  One  of  Dr.  Hodge's  warm  friends 
and  admirers    provided  a  private  car   for    his 


6i 

accommodation.  He  had  every  comfort,  and 
all  that  human  skill  and  affectionate  fore- 
thought   could    suggest    was    done.       It    was 

evident  to  all  that  he  had  come  home  to  die.  His  death, 

1891. 

The  end  was  nearer  than  we  supposed.  He 
grew  weaker  every  hour ;  and  on  the  after- 
noon of  Sunday,  the  27th  of  September, 
quietly  as  when  one  falls  asleep,  he  passed 
away. 


Date  Due 

FACULTY 

F/irateDC 

1 

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v-^wiijiw  - 

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' 

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ig#i(^liS|i 

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